Acer prepare 8-10 smartphones in 2010

Acer  started to sell its first mobile phone model running on Google’s Android software this week, and will introduce more Android handsets next year, the head of its phone unit said on Thursday.
For 2010, Acer plans to introduce yet another 8 to 10 new smartphones, but this time the line-up will be more balanced between Android and Windows – se we could expect to see half of Acer’s 2010 handsets coming with Android.

iPhone Supreme: the most expensive mobile phone in the world

Goldstriker International has won the questionable first prize in managing to produce the most expensive mobile phone in human history this week, with an iPhone 3G Supreme worth a reported £1.92 million.
This would be one of those phones that you would NOT want to be taking out to Soho on a Friday night bender and then, as you always do, dropping under the seat of an unlicensed mini-cab and totally forgetting about it on the way home.
Just a tip.
The iPhone 3GS Supreme was designed by a scouser, no less - one Stuart Hughes of Liverpool, who spent ten months of his life creating this thing.
We'll repeat that, for effect.
Ten months of his life. Dipping an iPhone in gold.
So how is it worth nearly £2 million? Here is how. It features 271 grams of 22ct solid gold, while 136 flawless diamonds (68 Ct's worth) on the front bezel, the rear Apple logo in solid gold lined by 53 diamonds and the front navigation button houses a very rare diamond at 7.1cts.
A lovely box too!
Oh, and it also 'ships' with 7kg chest made from a single block of Granite, offset with Kashmir gold and top grain Nubuck leather inner lining.
You won't find it on the Apple Store. It was actually commissioned by an 'eccentric' (idiotic) and anonymous Australian gold mining magnate.
If you want to commission your own head to Goldstriker International
Or just wait until they go on sale at Tesco next month and pop down to your local Argos to buy some cheap beads to stick on it.

Motorola Crush from U.S. Cellular

Motorola has recently announced the availability of its touch-based Crush from U.S. Cellular. The phone has:

2.8" 240 x 400 WQVGA display
Virtual QWERTY keyboard
2Mpix camera
Stereo Bluetooth
3.5mm headset
jackmicroSD slot (up to 16GB)
Built-in pedometer

Two New Sliders from Nokia

Nokia has recently unveiled two new slider phones that both support quad-band GSM/EDGE and North American tri-band WCDMA 850/1900/2100MHz radios. Other shared features are Bluetooth microSD card support, FM radio and integration with Ovi services. Both will be released in the Q1 2010.

The 6700 Slide is a S60 handset that features a 5Mpix camera with autofocus, flash, Carl Zeiss optics, on-board photo editing functions, and the ability to capture video at 15 fps. It will cost about $240.

The 7230 is a Series 40 handset with a 3.2Mpix camera, and includes Nokia Xpress Audio Messaging. It will be selling for about $150.

Nokia E52 Preview- Great battery life...

 
As a part of the E-Series family, the E52 is a bit of a black shee
It's a messaging phone, but it doesn't have a QWERTY or dual-QWERTY
keyboard. Perhaps its extraordinary battery life will come to its rescue.

Upside

At 9.9mm thick the E52 is the mobile phone equivalent of a size zero. But as with supermodels, is there such a thing as a phone being too skinny? We think not, in fact as long as the phone is sturdy enough not to snap in the middle we say the thinner the better.
The big drawcard for the E52 though is its reported 23 days standby battery life, and eight hours of talk-time. These are startling figures if you consider that the E52 will make use of HSDPA data, Wi-Fi, GPS and Nokia's new push email messaging client. Of course, the quoted figures are most likely excluding extra connectivity like push email, but if the battery can handle 23 days in standby then it probably does better than most at powering always-on features and data transfers during web browsing.
Interestingly the E52 will feature a new ARM processor, a 600MHz chip as opposed to the 369MHz processor found in the E75. This is another feature we'd have thought would significantly drain a phone's battery, and yet the E52 should still be one of the most power efficient mobiles in market if Nokia's claims prove true.

Downside

Nokia's family of E-Series messaging phones is growing faster than we think is necessary. Last year saw two E-Series devices, the full-QWERTY candybar E71, and the slider with a numeric keypad E66. Even with just a choice of two there is no doubting the popularity of the E71, which crushed the E66 into forgettable dust. This year we've seen the E75 in the flesh and heard about the announcements of the E55 and E52, and the differences between all three handsets are smaller still, especially between the latter two.

In line with this train of thought, what is the real purpose of a Nokia messaging phone with a standard numeric keypad? Take away the stainless steel trim and the E52 would look and work like a Nokia 6220 Classic. Nokia will tell us that the E-Series is differentiated by its software perhaps, but the recent Classic series updates used the same processor and version of the Series 60 operating platform, and will run the same software. Plus you'd probably get a better camera with a Classic series handset.

Overall

We don't want to be too unsympathetic before we see the E52, but if it's a messaging handset then we want something about the phone to say this; a QWERTY keyboard is always a good place to start. The extended battery life is not to be sneezed at, and here's hoping Nokia finds a way to incorporate these stellar battery cycles across all phones in its range. The E52 will be in Australia in the second half of 2009.

Review: Samsung Jet

 

Design

The Jet is compact, pocket-friendly and the buttons are well-defined with good travel. Disappointingly, it invites fingerprint smudges too easily. From the side, the front and back of the chassis taper to a point on the bottom edge. The side profile resembles a flattened speeding bullet, possibly a fitting appearance for the speedy 800MHz processor inside.
The real gem, however, lies in the details, starting with the hexagonal button below the screen, which resembles a 3D cube instead of the regular flat key. It has a clear plastic layer on top with a reflective mirror acting as the base — a very elegant design we must say.

Around the back is a hologram of red "railings", visible only when the phone is tilted at certain angles. It's gimmicky, but we like the little touches that Samsung has added on the Jet. The micro-USB port and 3.5mm audio jack sit along the top, while the key lock, Media Gate (more on that later) and camera shutter are on the right. On the opposite side is the volume button.

Features

The Jet runs on TouchWiz 2.0, an updated version of the touchscreen user interface seen on earlier phones like the F480. There are three home screens, similar to the Android operating system, and you can drag widgets onto these "pages". Each page operates independently. This means it's possible to have the same app on all three screens, even though we reckon no one would do that. One thing to note is that it's not possible to scroll vertically on the home screens, so you're limited to the 3.1-inch, 800x480-pixel AMOLED display. Larger widgets take up more space and you may end up being able to fit only one app on a page.
There are two types of widgets on the Jet: the offline ones and those that require an internet connection. The latter group comprises news, weather and search apps. The Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Photobucket, Flicker, Picasa and Friendster widgets are merely web links, so these are considered offline apps. Admittedly, the variety of widgets is still limited at this moment (34 are preinstalled). And while the widget platform is interesting, other smartphone operating systems have been around for a long time and third-party programs are readily available on the web. The one thing we'd like to see is a software development kit (SDK) for the platform as this may dramatically increase the potential of the system if developers catch on it.
A few other novelties come with TouchWiz 2.0. These include the Media Gate 3D user interface and Motion Gate. The former is reminiscent of LG's 3D S-Class cube interface and HTC's TouchFlo 3D. There's a shortcut button on the side of the phone to access Media Gate, which is simply an on-screen cube suspended in mid-air. You can swipe and rotate it to get to six multimedia programs such as music player and the web browser. The irony is that Samsung also provides a row of on-screen shortcuts at the bottom of the display. We find the latter more useful (and faster) in getting to the apps. When you get to the browser on the cube, you flick up or down to cycle through your bookmarks. Likewise in Album where you can quickly scroll through photo snaps like a pack of cards.
The motion recognition engine Motion Gate is more interactive. We can shake the device to end applications and double-tap to play music and take pictures, but our experience with it fell short. This is because Motion Gate is accessible only via a separate menu by holding down the Media Gate button to get to the two assigned shortcuts. This means that if you use the standard music player from the phone's main menu, you can't snap/tilt to switch tracks. Or if you activate the camera by holding down the shutter key, the double-tap feature wouldn't work. We think these are innovative features, but it's more a showcase of what Samsung can do with the built-in accelerometer rather than being useful and intuitive apps. Still, it's a good attempt even if we find the implementation lacking.
We like the Etiquette pause and Speaker call accelerometer-based functions on the Jet. The former is common enough these days and lets you mute the phone when you face it down. The Speaker call function is a little more unique and smart. Moving the phone away from the face during a call and placing it on a flat surface automatically activates the speakerphone. This worked without a hitch during our review.
There's also a new tap-and-slide zooming feature which Samsung introduced on the phone. This isn't as intuitive as pinching and stretching on the iPhone, but it works (even though it takes a few moments to get used to it) and that's good. Smart Unlock, which we saw earlier on the Samsung Star, is also implemented here. This lets you unlock the phone by writing a predetermined letter on-screen.
Like the home screen, the main menu is now spread over three pages as well. This is similar to the iPhone interface except that you don't have an option to rearrange the icons. The good thing about this layout is you no longer need to have sub-menus. For example, you may need to go into Organizer to get to certain apps in that folder on some devices. With this interface, you can get to the programs directly. The Jet doesn't have a physical keypad, so text input is via the on-screen alphanumeric pad, or a QWERTY keyboard when you rotate the device sideways.
At this point, we'd like to clarify that we tested two Jets on three MobileOne (M1) SIM cards and we encountered several teething problems. We couldn't get the handsets to synchronise with our office Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. Assisted-GPS didn't work and web page rendering on Samsung's proprietary Dolfin browser was wonky. Initially, we thought this could be an issue with the hardware and we asked the company what could have gone wrong. It turned out that the data settings sent over-the-air from M1 doesn't work for our sets. Samsung's product manager clarified that the handsets bought directly from the telco wouldn't face these issues since they would have been pre-configured with the right settings. Fair enough.
That said, we still couldn't get the Jet to sync with our Exchange Server with the SingTel SIM card. The explanation from Samsung was that the Exchange ActiveSync implementation on the Jet is meant only for basic Exchange use, typically SMB or SOHO set-ups which have their email systems provided by a hosting company. Although we weren't able to test this out, Samsung's press release said that ActiveSync will synchronise emails, calendar and contacts entries.
The Dolfin browser is a Webkit version, letting you have up to five tabs opened simultaneously. That's helpful if you need to zip between different websites.
According to Samsung, Jet units sold in Singapore are not bundled with a microSD memory card, although the handset has an internal memory of 2GB. This is required to run the mapping software that supposedly incorporates 3D Map Navigation. You can activate the program icon in the phone settings, but you'd get a message prompt that says you should insert the memory card. It can be a little misleading and we feel this option should have been disabled if the accompanying software isn't provided in the box. That said, Google Maps is pre-installed, so you still have basic mapping software on the Jet.

Performance

The Jet packs an 800MHz processor, a clock speed that's considered fast even when compared with smartphones. The HD Icon and Omnia i900 had processors with clock speeds of 600MHz and 624MHz, respectively. Navigating the phone's menus and opening applications was snappy. At the same time, we were impressed with the 5-megapixel camera, which had a shutter lag of only 0.2 second. There was hardly any purple fringing in our snaps and the shooter was able to handle white balance pretty well in our test shots. The dual-LED flash, however, gave us uneven lighting as the intensity was generally focused on the centre of our test shots and dropped off rapidly toward the edges.
We had no issues with call quality and video calls were respectable. The image quality from the front camera was admirable and there was minimal display of sluggishness and lag. The on-board speakers were also loud enough for video calls and music playback. Video capture is at 720x480 pixels (30fps) in MP4 format and a one-minute clip generates an approximate 14.6MB file size. We were able to play our DivX test video smoothly on the handset without having to do any conversion on the Jet. In short, it's a pretty capable multimedia device.
The 800x480-pixel AMOLED touchscreen, which shares the same resolution as the HTC Touch HD and Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, was sharp, bright and held up well under the sun. We didn't have to squint while typing text messages or when looking at web content.
The 1100mAh battery has a rated talk time of 8.2 hours and approximately 17.5 days on standby. On average, we managed to get two days of usage before having to reach for the charger.

Conclusion

We didn't think the enhanced TouchWiz 2.0 was a remarkable improvement over the earlier version. Instead, it is more of a showcase of what Samsung can do. What could have made the UI better would be Samsung releasing an SDK for the platform and having developers build apps for it. We encountered some hiccups with the SIM card issue during our review, but safe to say, that's something the end-user wouldn't encounter if they purchase the handset directly from a telco operator.
Did the Jet fulfil its promise as being smarter than a smartphone? Overall, we feel the Jet is an excellent device with the right set of features. These definitely work in Samsung's favour and the Jet's strengths noticeably outweigh its weakness of limited apps. As far as regular touchscreen handsets go, the Jet will be your best bet.

Sony Ericsson Aino - a PlayStation 3 orientated phone

If you’re a serious gamer, you’ve probably been feeling slightly left out all these years without a phone that properly “clicked” with what you love the most. Now all that is about to change. The latest Sony Ericsson Aino has got everything you’ve been missing in a phone.
The Aino is a slider phone with a large three inch touch enabled display screen with 16 million colours. Running a modified version of Sony Ericsson’s phone OS, do not dare to mistaken the Aino with the likes of business orientated smartphones as it is exactly the opposite. Running a feature familiar to PSP owners known as Remote play. The Aino has been equipped with the privelge to allow its user to connect to his / her PS3 from anywhere around the globe. With the Aino, all the content on your PS3 .

iPhone Dev Team Posts Ultrasn0w Update for 3.1.x IPSWs

By releasing PwnageTool 3.1.4 last month, the infamous iPhone Dev Team provided jailbreak support for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, out of the box. However, at the time, those relying on ultrasn0w to unlock their phones for use with an unsupported carrier would lose their ability to unlock employing the tool, should they perform the 3.1.2 firmware update with a stock IPSW download via iTunes.

“If you are using a iPhone 3G or iPhone 3G(S) with ultrasn0w and rely on ultrasn0w to obtain cellular service then you should only update your device with an .ipsw that is made with the new PwnageTool,” the Dev Team stressed last month. “There are no second chances with this. You need to remember that PwnageTool will provide an upgrade path to newer versions of the iPhone software in the future,” the hackers’ blog update said.

Now, the team of internationally-known iPhone OS hackers have released “an ultrasn0w update that fixes an issue for those running firmware 3.1.x with the 04.26 baseband,” according to their latest blog post. “That specific combination resulted in a missing carrier name in the upper left-hand corner of your home screen,” the team adds. “Today’s ultrasn0w update from 0.91 to 0.92 fixes that problem (which was an important issue for roaming). You should see the update available if you have http://repo666.ultrasn0w.com as a Cydia source.  Enjoy!”, the post ends.

As such, ultrasn0w now supports all iPhone models, hence the latest IPSW (iPhone firmware) update / restore files from Apple: “iPhone1,1_3.1.2_7D11_Restore.ipsw”; “iPhone1,2_3.1.2_7D11_Restore.ipsw”; “iPhone2,1_3.1.2_7D11_Restore.ipsw”.

Softpedia doesn't condone jailbreaking / unlocking the iPhone / iPod touch or any other device. This article has a purely informational purpose and doesn't, in any way, suggest that you should hack your Apple device. Using hacks may render your device unusable, or may reduce the quality of your experience using the respective device. If you choose to download and install jailbreak tools, you will do so at your own risk. Unlocking / jailbreaking your iPhone / iPod touch may violate your warranty or the EULA with Apple and / or your cellular-service provider.

Zune HD 4.3 Firmware Brings Support for Apps and 3D Games

Microsoft Zune Team today has rolled out a new firmware update, version 4.3 for Zune HD players. This update is the third revision since the Zune HD launch in September of this year. The latest firmware update brings support for upcoming 3D games and apps, along with other performance upgrades and bug fixes. Some of the changes that we have noticed in this new firmware update are listed below.

Zune HD firmware update: Today we released the v4.3 firmware update for Zune HD players; this update adds support for upcoming 3d games and applications, as well as an auto-suggest feature for better text input, and other minor improvements. Enjoy!

What’s new in Zune HD 4.3 Firmware

Zune HD 4.3 firmware brings: 

Support for the upcoming 3D games and applications.
Auto Suggest feature for text input.

Faster web browsing experience.
Landscape keyboard
Keyboard option has been added in the settings section.
New toggle between seek and presets under Radio.
Under the Internet in settings, you can now toggle to default mobile or desktop webpage layout.
Artists bios are updated; embedded links to other artists in text.
Other bug fixes.

See the attached video below to see the improved text input feature in action:

Support for upcoming 3D games and applications for Zune HD sounds exciting! Rumor has it that we may get to see the first batch of 3D games and apps for Zune HD as early as 17th November, the same day on which Xbox 360 update is scheduled to arrive.

Protect iPhone 3GS Against ikee Virus Attack

In continuation from our last post, here is yet another development which took place in the last few days when some jailbroken iPhone users found their home screen background a little different than it was last seen by them. If your jailbroken iPhone has changed its background automatically to that of Rick Astley (some 80’s singer) with the words "ikee is never going to give you up", then you are most likely a victim of ikee virus which infects iPhone’s via SSH. The virus in question has originated from Australia by a hacker named Ikee and it is now quickly spreading to other parts of the world. If you have been affected, luckily there is no harm done as this virus was more of an experiment than anything else.

ikee is basically a worm which infects an iPhone via SSH. Once an iPhone has been infected by ikee, It automatically starts searching for other iPhone’s on the cellular network that use the root:alpine username/password combination. Once it finds another vulnerable iPhone, it installs itself and begins the process again and this goes on like a nuclear chain reaction. ikee virus will disable SSH access on your iPhone and will change the background image to that of “Rick Astley” as can be seen in the screenshot above.
Here is an excerpt from the recently held interview with the hacker Ikee over IRC:

First I was curious to how far something like this would actually spread, I think what most people were unaware of is the fact it is a worm and every phone that got infected with it was spreading it (I initially only infected 3 phones when I woke up I checked Google and found out a fair few people were hit with it). Secondly I was quite amazed by the number of people who didn’t RTFM and change their default passwords. I also didn’t think that many people would have not changed their passwords. I was expecting to see maybe 10~ or so people, at first I was not even going to add the replicate/worm code but it was a learning experience and I got a tad carried away. I heard a few stories about it, that would have been sheer luck, the code itself is set to firstly scan the 3G IP range the phone is on, then Optus/Vodafone/Telstra’s IP Ranges (I think the reason Optus got hit so hard is because the other 2 are NAT’d) then a random 20 IP ranges. I’m guessing a few phones hit a range that another vulnerable phone was on. I don’t think it was an Optus fault (Being an Optus user I quite like the fact I can access my iPhone services from the outside world), I think it was mainly the fault of people being too lazy to change their passwords (It only takes a couple of seconds guys) and I hope this taught a few people that.

To protect your jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch from ikee virus attack or any other similar attacks in the future, you must change your default SSH password now. Follow our detailed step by step guide posted here which explains how to change your SSH password. Remember to secure your iPhone is yours and only your responsibility, else there are many hackers out there with brilliant minds who can easily infringe on your sovereignty.

Pre-paid mobile phones banned in Indian Kashmir: state TV

SRINAGAR, India — India banned pre-paid mobile telephones in Kashmir on Friday, state television reported, following concerns that militants were using them to trigger bombs and hide their identities.

Mobile phones were launched in Kashmir only in 2003 after security agencies gave the go-ahead, but pre-paid versions are suspected to have been used in attacks since.

Pre-paid phones -- phones that come with a set number of minutes charged on them -- are easier to buy than their post-paid equivalents.

Post-paid -- mobiles paid on a monthly basis -- can only be bought after a series of security checks and official registration of personal details and passport photographs.

"All pre-paid mobile connections will stop functioning from November 1 after the home ministry's order in this regard," India's state-owned television Doordarshan announced Friday.

India's Home Minister P. Chidambaram during his trip to Kashmir this month had raised the possibility that pre-paid mobile telephones might be banned in the disputed region as "they were prone to misuse."

He said there was "a vast difference from the security point of view" between pre-paid mobiles, which can be bought without detailed identification, and contract-paid mobiles.

Kashmir's insurgency against rule from New Delhi has left more than 47,000 people dead by official count, though separatists put the toll at between 80,000 and 100,000.

The region is divided between Pakistani and Indian zones, but both countries claim it in whole and have fought two wars over it.